Lost in the Shuffle
by Bryon Nightshade
Summary: The only thing harder than doing the impossible is figuring out what comes next. (Rogue One alternate ending.)


The Imperial shuttle burst into realspace. Out around them was a vast void, emptiness as far as eye could perceive.

"Where are we?"

"Nowhere. It's the safest place for us to be right now."

"Nowhere? What do you mean, 'nowhere'?"

"There wasn't exactly time to find a destination. I just picked a direction. But space is mostly empty. If I kept the first jump short, we could escape the system, and then figure out the next step."

"And if there had been a star in the way?"

"Well, we would have found out if the Empire's been cutting costs on their safety measures. But at least we would have been away from Scariff." Cassian Andor gave a small smile. "Weren't you the one who said, 'We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we succeed or the chances are spent'?"

Jyn Erso smiled in reply. "I don't know what came over me. It must have been some sort of fit."

He nodded shrewdly. "Well, fit or not, it worked. We did it." It took a few seconds for his words to sink in. "We did it," he repeated incredulously. "We did it!" he crowed with a look to Jyn.

"We did," she agreed. "Those plans are probably on the other side of the galaxy by now."

The stars didn't look so cold or distant any more. They seemed like a twinkling celebration of victory.

"I've been a Rebel my whole life," Cassian said, "and I've never seen a day like this."

"What, you'd never won a battle?"

"Only little ones," said Cassian. "An assassination here, a bomb placed there, a few ships stolen somewhere else. Small victories. You have to have small ones to build up to big ones, but the Empire's so enormous, it never felt those little ones. But this…" he chuckled. "The Empire will remember this day!"

Jyn marveled at him. For as much as she disliked the Empire, as much as she'd fought it, the struggle wasn't personal for her. She wasn't invested in it. She rebelled by nature, without ever being a Rebel.

And the result was that she'd never been as happy about anything as Cassian was in this moment. He was drunk on it, and on the sheer thrill of still being alive. Maybe they both were.

"Yes," he said, starting to grow somber. "The Empire will remember this day." He gave her a look. "And it will remember us."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that once the Empire figures out we were involved, it'll hunt us with its full might. There won't be half a dozen people in the entire galaxy the Empire will want as badly as it wants us."

Jyn shrugged. "I've been wanted since I was a young girl."

"Not like this," said Cassian. "Not by an Empire that really wants you. The resources it can bring to bear when it feels the need…"

That made Jyn think back. A farm. A necklace. A day of fear and loss and hiding.

"You might be right," she admitted. "So what?"

"So it's time to disappear." Cassian leaned back and looked out into the starscape. "We need to pick a place, soon, before they compute our trajectory and run over us. And we can't go back to the Rebellion, either. We can't risk the Empire tracking us back to them. Maybe later. For now, we have to lay low."

Jyn sat forward in her chair. She picked a star and pointed at it. "That one," she said.

"That what?"

"We'll go there."

Cassian frowned. "What star is that?"

"I don't know," Jyn admitted.

"So why do you want to go there?"

"All places are alike to me," she replied.

That just bothered him more. "And if it's Kuat?"

"Kuat's too far away to see from here."

"Coruscant, then."

"There are billions of people on Coruscant. It'd be easy to disappear there."

"Assuming we could even get through their planetary defenses."

"We did it once," she said with a grin. "Why not again?"

"I am not going to an Imperial core system to hide from the Empire, that's madness."

"Scariff was madness, and here we are. What, are you afraid?"

He gave her a sharp look, but surveyed her before he spoke. "Are you teasing me?" he said suspiciously.

"I've always been able to get under people's skin," she said. "It's a talent."

"Huh," he said, and gave her an entirely too-understanding look before he took the controls. The shuttle came about; soon, Jyn's chosen star was directly in front of them. "That's probably…" he muttered, looking at his navigation screens, "…Secundromo. Sound good to you?"

"Sure," she said affably.

"We'll need a plan to ditch the shuttle, of course," said Cassian. "We could use the money, but we could use the attention much less. And we'll need new cover stories, identities, and names."

"How about Stardust as a surname?"

"You really do want to be caught," Cassian muttered, but without heat.

"Well," Jyn said, "do you have any better ideas?"

Cassian was thoughtful as he worked through his navigation controls. "Kyle," he said.

"Kyle?"

"Kyle Katarn," Cassian said more firmly. "I like the sound of that."

"I'm not taking the name 'Katarn'," Jyn said.

"I wouldn't want you to," said Cassian. His voice was indignant, but his face told a different story.

"You don't even look like a Kyle."

"True," Cassian admitted, rubbing his face. "But with a full beard—a full _brown_ beard—I think that's a Kyle look. Well, what about you?"

She shrugged. "Jan Ors. How about that?"

"How about I dump you on Secundromo and hide on my own?"

"You wouldn't dare."

He gave her a hopeless look. "You really think a little change from Jyn Erso to Jan Ors will be enough for you to disappear?"

She smiled as she looked out at the stars. "It's a big galaxy."

After a few seconds, he huffed. "I suppose it is."

The stars stretched into infinity. Hyperspace welcomed them home.

* * *

 _Yes, I know the actual ending is the best. And yes, I know that Cassian and Jyn have largely the reversed character traits of Kyle and Jan. And yes, I know that Katarn was Kyle's actual last name and his family had history and blah blah blah. But if Disney had wanted to throw dedicated fans a bone, it might have been something like this._


End file.
